‘I’m lucky to be alive’

Finance manager Kathryn Hearn whose dementia turned out to be a brain tumour

After her tumble in Marsh Farm in January last year, the 51-year-old mother-of-three started having problems with her speech.

“I had difficulties finding the right words at meetings and in everyday conversations,” she said.

“I gave up on small talk – it was too much effort.

“I thought I had the beginnings of dementia and actually felt very pleased with myself for disguising it so well.”

But luckily her partner John Currell, 55, and colleague Sandra Norman thought otherwise.

They persuaded her to see her doctor earlier this year and within 10 days she was in the London Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery being prepped for an operation to remove a brain tumour as big as an egg.

“I don’t think I realised just what a major procedure it would be,” Kathryn, of Repton Close, recalled. “I thought the outcome of the majority of brain ops was positive – but in fact it’s the opposite.

“I’m in the minority and I’m very fortunate.”

Her fashionable feather cut conceals a scar that stretches right across the top of her head.

“It’s not painful, it just feels like I’m wearing a tight Alice band,” she explained.

“My vision has changed slightly. My optician was quite surprised that my stigmatism has improved.”

Kathryn now has expressive aphasia which means she still has problems finding words. “It’s worse when I’m tired,” she said. “But I can understand what people say and speech therapy is helping.”

More than 95 percent of the tumour was removed. Kathryn will have regular scans to check it hasn’t regrown, but if it does she has the option of further surgery and radiotherapy.

Looking back, she can remember an incident that may have been an indicator of what was to come.

“I was cycling to the supermarket when I thought there was someone on my right,” she said.

“I turned to look but there was no-one there.

“Then I had a funny doodling sensation about once a week when I had to go through the motions of actually drawing something.”

The former Queensbury pupil said her shocking experience has drawn her family closer together and she was really glad to be alive.

She’s so grateful for the help and support she received that she’s set up http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/KathrynHearn1 to raise money for The National Brain Appeal and the Luton&Dunstable Hospital.